For much of the time that his first full-length play was basking in Broadway success two years ago, Geoffrey Nauffts was stuck clear across the continent, toiling as a TV writer in Hollywood.

So now that the Tony Award-nominated “Next Fall” is practically next door — it receives its San Diego premiere this week at Diversionary Theatre — the playwright finally gets a chance to see what he missed.

That might be a little exaggeration (Nauffts did get to New York some weekends during the play’s five-month Broadway run), but it’s also true that the way productions of “Next Fall” have subsequently sprouted around the country has outpaced his ability to keep up with them.

“The play’s being done all over the place right now, which has been really amazing,” Nauffts said during a visit to Diversionary’s University Heights digs on a recent weekday.

“I’m so grateful for it to have more of a life outside New York. But it’s not often I’ll get to be part of those productions, so to be a small part of this one — to be able to sit in on a rehearsal and answer any questions that the director or cast members might have — that’ll be great.”

The local production also holds some special meaning for Nauffts because of Diversionary’s indirect connection to “Next Fall.” Before John Alexander was named the LGBT-focused theater’s executive director last year, the UC San Diego graduate had served as managing director of the off-Broadway company Naked Angels, where Nauffts previously was artistic director.

That’s where “Next Fall” got its start, and Nauffts credits Alexander with helping shepherd the production to Broadway.

Nauffts is also an old friend of the Broadway-seasoned actor Matt McGrath (“Cabaret”), who plays the key role of Adam in “Next Fall” at Diversionary. McGrath, most recently seen here as Frank N. Furter in last fall’s Old Globe production of “Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show,” reteams with that show’s very in-demand director, Escondido’s own James Vasquez. (The production’s cast also includes Stewart Calhoun, Tony Houck, John Whitley, Jacque Wilke and Shana Wride.)

“Next Fall” centers on the five-year relationship between Adam and his partner, Luke, and the complex roles that faith and family play in their lives. Although it has comic elements, the piece has its heartbreaks as well: an accident leaves the devout Luke in dire condition, and leaves Adam (who’s an atheist) to wrestle with his beliefs.

Much of the tension stems from Adam’s encounters in a hospital waiting room with Luke’s traditional parents, who don’t know (or don’t care to know) that their son is gay.

Although Nauffts didn’t grow up in a churchgoing family, “I’ve always been fascinated by the big questions, and religion in particular — how it works,” he says. “And in many ways I feel grateful not to have been confined by any (particular) religion growing up.

“By the same token, I feel I have suffered from time to time by not having it. There’s a certain peace sometimes or a certain clarity I witness in people who do have faith, that I sometimes long for.”

Nauffts says the impulse to write “Next Fall” wasn’t just about religion, though — it was as much about exploring how people grapple with conflicts and frictions of all kinds on the way to finding some sense of meaning and equilibrium.

“Our world is so divided, and has been, on religious lines,” he said. “So to put it in a human context and have these two people falling in love with each other and really having to navigate these differences was something I thought could reflect on a larger scale.

“(But) I think there’s a lot of other stuff going on in this play. It is about coexisting, but it’s also about family, and being in the moment, living in the moment — not putting off until next fall what you should be doing right now.